Graduates, Parents, Family, Friends, Teachers, WCS staff , Ladies and Gentlemen:
This is such an honour – to be asked by a graduating class to speak at their ceremonies. I hope one day you too have this same honour. Thank you again for asking me. I have had the privilege and honour of teaching for 6 years here at Worsley Central School. I love what I do – torturing young people with my wisdom. I have one wish for all of you tonight – find something that you love and live for - something that gives you inspiration and gets you excited – and find a way to make it into your career, as I have. I live to talk about history, and teaching gives me a captive audience – or at least a group of people who can't escape from the classroom. I grew up in a small town with a small school like Worsley's – my class was a large graduating class of 28. In a smaller school, one learns more than what is taught in the curriculum – though the curriculum is very important. Most of the important lessons taught by the curriculum are in Social Studies. I suppose Math has its place, and English is good to know! (I'm a Social Studies teacher). My first year here was in 1994. I got to witness something that happens here in Worsley Central School every year. At Christmas, we have the tradition of a Christmas Banquet. At this banquet, all grades gather here in the gymnasium for a feast. That first year I watched and was glad that I was here in this school. What happened then was nothing big, but it is something that happens many times in this school. After grace, the Grade 1 and 2 class got up to 'dish up', and the Grade 12 class paired up with them, and helped the younger students fill their plates. Think back to when you were in Grade 1 or 2 … the Grade 12's were IT. Everyone looked up to them. And to have them help you, notice you, talk to you was so exciting. This is just an example of how WCS is more than a school … it is a community. Senior students helping the younger – modeling good citizenship. I'm sure though that these seniors would tell you the reason they like doing this is after they finish helping the Grade 1/2's, they get to dish up next …. but I'm sure that they also enjoy helping these future graduates – the Classes of 2013/14. This type of gathering is very rare and special. Let me tell you that in my K – 12 school this never happened. The Elementary and High School were kept apart – physically and socially. We had two wings in the school, with the gym in the middle. Most of the time, the only time Elementary and High School saw each other was on the bus. The sense of community that exists in WCS is special and is not taught through curricular academics. This is a lesson taught by your school's environment. These lessons are just as important as what is learned in the classroom. This leads me to a story I want to tell you – a lesson! Don't worry, it is not a history lesson – though I'm sure you would enjoy a quick lesson in Canadian history! My best friend from high school forwards me all of these emails. This one in particular I felt needed to be shared – it is titled "Who's Packing Your Parachute?" Charles Plumb was a U.S. Navy pilot in Vietnam. After 75 combat missions, his plane was destroyed by a surface-to-air missile. Plumb ejected and parachuted into enemy hands. He was captured and spent 6 years in a North Vietnamese prison camp. He survived the ordeal, and now lectures on lessons learned from that experience. One day, when Plumb and his wife were sitting in a restaurant, a man at another table came up and said, "You're Plumb! You flew jet fighters in Vietnam from the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk. You were shot down!" "How in the world did you know that?" asked Plumb. "I packed your parachute" the man replied. Plumb gasped in surprise and gratitude. The man pumped his hand and said, "I guess it worked!" Plumb assured him, "It sure did. If your chute hadn't worked, I wouldn't be here today." Plumb couldn't sleep that night, thinking about that man. Plumbs says "I kept wondering what he had looked like in a Navy uniform: a white hat, a bib in the back, and bell-bottom trousers. I wondered how many times I might have seen him and not even said 'Good morning, how are you?' or anything, because you see, I was a fighter pilot and he was just a sailor." Plumb thought of the many hours that that sailor had spent at a long wooden table in the bowels of the ship, carefully weaving the shrouds and folding the silks of each chute, holding in his hands each time the fate of someone he didn't know. Now, Plumb asks his audience, "Who's packing your parachute?" Everyone has someone who provides what they need to make it through the day. Plumb also points out that he needed many kinds of parachutes when his plane was shot down over enemy territory – he needed his physical parachute, his mental parachute, his emotional parachute, and his spiritual parachute. He called on all these supports before reaching safety. Sometime in the daily challenges that life gives us, we miss what is really important. We may fail to say 'hello', 'please', or 'thank you'. We might not congratulate someone on something wonderful that has happened to them, we might not have given a compliment where one was deserved, or we might never do something nice for no reason. As you go through this transition of starting a new chapter in your life, recognize the people who have packed your parachutes – and thank them. I want to thank you – the Class of 2003. You have succeeded in so many ways – a wonderful Enchanted Evening, a successful school year and a successful school career. I have many memories of you, and I am glad to have had you all in my life. |